Manipulation of motion capture animation by characteristics

Three-dimensional animation is an area in vast expansion due to, continuous research in the field has enabled an increasing number of users access to powerful tools with intuitive interfaces. We present our work-in-progress methodology by which artists can manipulate existing animation segments using intuitive characteristics instead of manually changing keyframes' values and interpolations. To achieve this goal, motion capture is used to create a database in which actors perform the same movement with different characteristics; keyframes from those movements are analyzed and used to create a transformation of animation curves that describe differences of values and times in keyframes of neutral and a movement with a specific characteristic. This transformation can be used to change a large set of keyframes, embedding a desired characteristic into the segment. To test our methodology, we used as a proof of concept a character performing a walk, represented by 59 joints with 172 degrees of freedom (DOF), and a set of 12 physical and emotional characteristics. Using our methodology we embedded a neutral walk with these desired characteristics and evaluated the results with a survey comparing our modified animations with direct motion capture movements, with partial results. With this methodology, one can decrease drastically the time needed to tweak large sets of keyframes, embedding a desired characteristic in a fashion more closely related to the artistic universe of animators than the mathematical representations of angles, translations and interpolations in animation curves commonly used in commercial softwares

Signing avatars: making education more inclusive

In Brazil, there are approximately 9.7 million inhabitants who are deaf or hard of hearing. Moreover, about 30% of the Brazilian deaf community is illiterate in Brazilian Portuguese due to difficulties to offer deaf children an inclusive environment based on bilingual education. Currently, the prevailing teaching practice depends heavily on verbal language and on written material, making the inclusion of the deaf a challenging task. This paper presents the author's approach for tackling this problem and improving deaf students' accessibility to written material in order to help them master Brazilian Portuguese as a second language. We describe an ongoing project aimed at developing an automatic Brazilian Portuguese-to-Libras translation system that presents the translated content via an animated virtual human, or avatar. The paper describes the methodology adopted to compile a source language corpus having the deaf student needs in central focus. It also describes the construction of a parallel Brazilian Portuguese/Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) corpus based on motion capture technology. The envisioned translation architecture includes the definition of an Intermediate Language to drive the signing avatar. The results of a preliminary assessment of signs intelligibility highlight the application potential16793808CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPES458691/2013-588887.091672/2014-